I’m joined with someone who will have a really different perspective on this. As the president of the Real Estate Institute of South Australia, Cain Cook has done a lot for the industry over the last few years. But he’s not even involved directly in a real estate agency anymore. Good morning, Cain. Thanks for joining. 

Cain Cooke: Good morning, Rob. Thanks for having me on. 

Cain’s Career Journey 

Rob: Now we just mentioned before we started recording, that it’s been about 15 years since you were Century 21. What have you been doing with yourself since then? 

Cain: I’ve done a lot of different things in the last 15 years. I went and ran a little juice bar that everybody might be familiar with called Boost Juice. I was part of the team that brought Specsavers to Australia. I’ve run a South Australian coffee chain Chibo. Run an IT company and in the last couple of years, I’ve launched a couple of my own ventures one being an electric motorcycle company, which I guess is very much in the technology space, and a tiny homes business as well. 

Technology’s Impact on Real Estate 

Rob: How have you seen technology change things? 

Cain: In many, many ways and then in no ways at all. I think industry, from a technology perspective, we’re still doing a lot of the same processes that we were doing before, we’ve just removed a lot of the manual component. So there’s obviously a lot of automation and that allows property managers salespeople to do volume. I think that’s the real shift that I’ve seen is the ability to work faster, to sell more homes, to lease more homes, to manage more homes. 

The Human Element in Real Estate 

Cain: Fundamentally, this is a people business. So, when you have great people people listing and selling property and they’re not having to worry about triplicate pads to sign a contract, they can actually have technology to facilitate that process, that they’ve got prompters around the relationships or things that are important to people that are on their database they can really lean into one of the two most critical parts of any real estate transaction, whether that be on PM or sales, and that’s human. 

Data Interpretation in Real Estate 

Rob: In that serving up data space, what are you seeing that the top 10 percent agencies, what are they arming their teams with that perhaps other agencies should perhaps consider or look into? 

Cain: From my perspective, I think it’s actually about the interpretation of data. I think what the great agencies do and great agents is actually use that data and interpret it in real terms. So it’s all well and good for us to know that 8 Smith Street sold for 2.2 million. But what does that actually mean? How did that happen? What was the marketing campaign that went behind it? What did the buyer profile look like? What sort of conditions were set around that contract? 

Mentoring in Real Estate 

Rob: How would an agency owner or principal then help their younger or their newer agents get that perspective, understand the depth of that? How would they mentor them through that? 

Cain: I think the great agencies are doing this by bringing their recruits up through working underneath experienced agents. Sitting in a lounge room with somebody who has had these sorts of conversations with vendors time in time out or purchases to get a deal done and really understanding the nuance of the craft. It is a nuanced craft dealing with people. 

AI in Real Estate 

Rob: Where do you see this fitting at the moment? What are agencies doing to embrace it? And where do you think it’ll go? 

Cain: I think AI is a risk for our business if we don’t think about it in the right way. The way we survive, again, is to go back to that human piece. It’s be belly to belly, be toe to toe, have the conversations, make meaningful connections with people, show up and care, and then let the AI do all the stuff that doesn’t require you to be an empathetic human. 

Technology for Small Agencies 

Rob: Do you have any recommendations or any ideas for smaller agencies and agents who might want to get on this and try and understand how they can add value to their customer using tech, given they’ve got their day job, which is being a real estate agent? 

Cain: If you’re a smaller practice or you are just starting out, there’s actually a myriad of tools that you can access within things that you’re using every day. I think most of us spend a lot more time on Instagram than I probably should. But those tools are actually embedded in there to help you find customers to generate content. And you don’t have to pay for them. They already exist. 

The Role of Agency Groups 

Rob: What’s your view on agency groups and their role in helping their smaller agency members lift up in their tech space? 

Cain: I actually probably see it in the same way that we think about it at the Real Estate Institute of South Australia. We think that our job is not to tell you what to do. And I think marketing brand groups are kind of getting in that space too. And that is about helping you find the best system or structure for you. Real estate agents should be great at real estate, not at technology. 

Looking to the Future 

Cain: Don’t expect that the system that you’re using today is the system that you’re going to be using in five or 10 years time. Our ability to be agile and not getting bogged down in systems is also really important because the space is dynamic. There’s something new coming around the corner all the time. 

Rob: I think that’s probably a good spot to finish it there. We’ve covered a bit of everything from platforms to the future to AI. And I think there’s some good perspectives there that hopefully some of the listeners can take home and maybe even apply in their own business. Cain, thank you so much for joining me today. 

Cain: Absolute pleasure, Rob. Thanks for having me on.